Problem: Gabriela is 5 times as old as Umaima and is also 24 years older than Umaima. How old is Umaima?
Explanation: We can use the given information to write down two equations that describe the ages of Gabriela and Umaima. Let Gabriela's current age be $g$ and Umaima's current age be $u$ $g = 5u$ $g = u + 24$ Now we have two independent equations, and we can solve for our two unknowns. Since we are looking for $u$ , and both of our equations have $g$ alone on one side, this is a convenient time to use elimination. Subtracting the second equation from the first equation, we get: $0 =$ $5u$ $-$ $ (u + 24)$ which combines the information about $u$ from both of our original equations. Solving for $u$ , we get: $4 u = 24$ $u = 6$.